September 28, 2007—PMI files for potential spin-off - Philip Morris International has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission a preliminary registration statement in preparation for its potential spin-off from parent company Altria Group. Altria made the announcement of the filing yesterday. ‘On August 29, 2007, the board of directors of Altria announced its intention to pursue the spin-off of PMI to Altria's shareholders,’ Altria said in a statement posted on its website. ‘At that time, the Altria board said that it anticipates that it will be in a position to finalize its decision and announce the precise timing of the spin-off at its regularly scheduled meeting on January 30, 2008. The spin-off is subject to final approval by the Altria board and other conditions, including required regulatory approvals.’ (Tobacco Reporter) See related Newsbrief: August 30, 2007.

September 27, 2007 - U.S. CONGRESS PASSES CHILDREN'S COVERAGE; SCHIP HEADS TOWARD VETO - Senate passes SCHIP/Healthy Families expansion with veto-proof 69-30 vote; follows House passage of SCHIP, 265-159, a majority but not enough to override veto. ACTION ITEM: Write your Representative about their SCHIP vote. The U.S. Senate on Thursday (9/27/2007) sent to President Bush a bipartisan $60 billion package that would extend the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for another five years. Even though SCHIP is set to expire on Sunday, September 30th, President Bush has already vowed to veto the measure. See related stories:September 21, 2007September 19, 2007July 28, 2007July 18, 2007 and July 9, 2007.

September 25, 2007 - Lorillard Hiking Prices, Too Five-cents-per-pack increase follows other tobacco companies.. -- Citing industry contacts, Citigroup tobacco analyst Bonnie Herzog said in a news “flash” late yesterday that Lorillard is following other cigarette manufactures by increasing the prices on its flagship Newport brand. Newport’s wholesale list price will increase by five cents per pack effective September 25, she said, adding, “This pricing action is in line with its main competitors, [Philip Morris USA] and Reynolds [American], who have both essentially taken prices up by around five cents per pack on most of their brands in the past two weeks.” Newport, Lorillard's top brand, is the No. 1 menthol cigarette brand in the United S

September 24, 2007 - Should Smokeless, Spitless Tobacco Be SPITLESS.. - More and more studies are surfacing that indicate that users are at an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer. (It should be remembered, as pointed out by Marita Broadstock in her systematic review (Systematic Review of the health effects of modified smokless tobacco products, NZHTA Report, February 2007, Volume 10 Number 1), the number of studies on smokeless tobacco is relatively slight compared to the wealth of literature published relating to smoking.) People who use Swedish moist snuff (snus) run twice the risk of developing cancer of the pancreas. This is the main result of a follow-up study conducted by Karolinska Institutet researchers amongst almost 300,000 male construction workers. The study is published online in the medical journal The Lancet (“Oral use of Swedish moist snuff (snus) and risk for cancer of the mouth, lung and pancreas in male construction workers; a retrospective cohort study”, Juhua Luo, Weimin Ye, Kazem Zendehdel, Johanna Adami, Hans-Olov Adami, Paolo Boffetto, Olof Nyrén.) As stated by Professor Olof Nyren, one of the authors of this paper, "We also have to be certain that an increase in snus marketing will not cause addictions in young people who otherwise wouldn’t have started to smoke." It's impossible to make sure this will not happen.. See related Newsbriefs:July 15, 2007 and June 20, 2007